A cloud digital video recorder (DVR) system enables recording content in a cloud server. There are two main variants of cloud DVR operation. One is common copy, where physical recordings of the same content in the cloud DVR system may be shared between many users. Another is unique copy, where every user has his/her own physical recording in content storage. The choice between common copy and unique copy may be driven by local laws and regulations, for example. A cloud DVR system may operate as follows. Cloud DVR users create recording bookings in advance of, or during, an event broadcast. The bookings are generally stored in a cloud personal planner. A cloud recorder is triggered to start recording the selected event. In accordance with some systems, the event is segmented into short segments, which are recorded and stored. A segment or recording table may be created, which maintains a list of all the segments for a given user recording. If common copy is followed, then all recordings of the same content share the same segments. If unique copy is followed (or required), then unique copies of every segment are stored by the cloud recorder for each user recording. After some time, the recorded segments may be moved to an archive storage. When the user wants to play a recording, the segment or recording table is used to retrieve the playable segments for the recording. In accordance with common copy operation, when all recordings using the same segment are deleted, the segment is deleted from the storage, releasing resources. If the segments are retrieved from archive storage, the segments are reconstituted before they are sent to the player. The recording is deleted either by the user or by the system when reaching a predetermined retention time.